“This is a horrible idea, Katie,” Eva said quietly, glancing at the pendant her best friend was waving around wildly.

“Oh, shove off, Eva, it’ll be fine!” Katie grinned, shaking the necklace. “Hopefully your past life is connected to this thing in some way, otherwise it won’t work… eh, let’s try anyway.”

With Eva glaring at her, Katie began to swing the necklace to and fro like a pendulum, murmuring vague phrases under her breath. She watched her friend carefully as she swung the old piece of jewellery. According to her dad, it belonged to a great-great-aunt Alice, who died aged 14 during the Blitz. Her brother had saved it, somehow, and so here it was.

Katie thought that starting with a WWII life would be the best idea, but she didn’t expect Eva’s eyes to go wide at the sight of the necklace, or for her to start yelling.

Eva never yelled.

“Why do you have that?” she snapped, eyes flickering between a bright green and brown, neither of which were her eye colour. Katie let the necklace drop to the floor, stumbling back in surprise.

“It’s my… it’s a family… holy sh*t it worked!”

Eva glanced around, eyes still flashing colours they really shouldn’t be. Her voice, Katie realised rather belatedly, was the same, which made no sense.

“No, no, no…” she whispered, gazing around wildly, staring at things that weren’t there.

And then she screamed, and Katie’s world seemed to turn upside down.

“ALICE!” Eva shrieked, coughing on smoke that wasn’t there, shielding herself from something that wasn’t there. “No, no, you can’t be dead. Not yet!”

“Eva!” Katie yelled, cutting off choked sobs that made no sense, trying to stop the strange colour-changing in her friend’s eyes.

The brown changed over to grey, and Eva hurriedly brushed the tears away, holding herself in a strange manner that almost screamed upper-class, and Katie swallowed.

This wasn’t meant to be happening at all.

And… Eva had known her great-great-aunt? Eva herself?

Her voice should have changed.

But how could her best friend also have been the best friend of a girl long-dead?